Session 31 Katol'íst Part 3
Session 31 Thozmolim has disappeared down the hallway. Through a portcullis they see a passageway, blocked by a massive stone minotaur, his hand outstretched. Shalazar's magic destroys the portcullis and they move cautiously towards the statue. Dael removes London's ring from the lead lined box and places it on the stone monster's finger. Its fist clenches tight and it sinks into an alcove in the wall, allowing access down into the labyrinth. Illiaph "No sign of Thozmolim. He must have gone down another path. The redcloaks said that they store the other scroll down in this pit along with Galdan's other treasures. We're going down." Illiaph suprises the party by going first. The stars going down are wider than normal, and take almost four steps each. Shalazar "These are not normal stairs. It's as if they were made for giants." The staircase doubles back on itself several times, leading down through a layer of steam. The hallway opens into a large humid room. The walls are smooth, tarnished metal and golden pipes lines the walls, vibrating slightly and giving off heat. Jamlamin scouts ahead and calls everyone else forward, down a long hallway to a brass door. Bight light flickers under the door and the tremendous heat makes the door almost untouchable. They push it in and are met with a strange sight, a perfectly spherical room with catwalks made from the same golden metal as the pipes. Golden piping sprouts from a crystalline globe in the center of the room. Light emanates from the roaring fire elemental in the crystal sphere as the pipes spray ever more water on it, forcing steam through the rest of the gilded plumbing. Consoles and crude dials lay inert, having been steamed clean of any markings or coloration long ago. Several doors out of this room draw the attention of the party, one has a large brass door frame, One seems to be made of crumbling stone, and the last one is jet black, carved from stone darker than the night sky. Jamlamin opens the brass bordered door to find a room with several effigies, constructs in the shape of armored hobgoblins stand against the wall motionless. Illiaph communes with the suffering fire elemental and decides to release the creature, banishing it to its home dimension. Almost imediately the room becomes dark and begins to cool. Marceliyna casts dancing lights to illuminate the room once agian. In the shadowy flicker of her rainbow lights, the party are disturbed to see the crystal orb begin filling up with jet-black water. Even more disturbing are the effigies. Several of them spring to life and attempt to force themselves past Jamlamin who blocks their path and holds the door. From back down the hallway, Dael hears the hiss of steam being released and peers down towards the entrance. Thozmolim looks up from a handful of parchment and begins smashing pipes with his hammer. Shadow pool water begins to leak from the pipes and covers the floor, consuming rocks and pieces of debris. Thozmolim grins briefly before taking one of Daels arrows to his left thigh. He stumbles back up the stairs as the black water fills the hallway. Dael runs back the the party as Illiaph brings the fire elemental back into the sphere. The light and heat of the elemental return with an echoing shriek of pain from the creature. The water instantly begins to boil and is pumped out of the sphere causing the spray of black water from the hallway to increase dramatically. Pipes burst along the hallway, black water washing over the effigies and the crystal sphere as the party to flee through the crumbling stone door. They find themselves running through tight and twisting, hand carved passageways for a time before stopping suddenly at the waters edge. A large shadow pool lay underneith the Katol'íst temple. Slick stepping stones lead accross the subterannean pool to a small altar hammered from the helmet of a titanic warrior. Halafas blinks over to it, marveling at the golden staff laying upon it. Illiaph Nobody cares about some rusty staff! Get the scroll! Halafas looks down at his feet to find a large roll of scaly leather. He grabs both it, and the staff, but is suprised when the black water around him erupts. Two monsterous shadowy hands reach out from the umbreal plane as the water level rises and consumes several of the stepping stones. Halafas is knocked unconscious and nearly into the pool, landing precariously on one of the quickly vanishing stepping stones. Dael and Illiaph rush to his aid as the unholy arms of the dark creature flail wildly at them. They manage to get Halafas out of the room, but find themselves heavily wounded and trapped in a hall way with water rising on both sides. A sudden shower of blue cinders and the confused voices of Shalazar and the drunken wizard come from an adjacent room. They manage to teleport back to the upper ruin just as the water closes in around them. EXP and Journal